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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Making of the BAMcinemaFest Trailer

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look into the creation of this year’s BAMcinemaFest trailer from the creative force behind the animation, Eve Weinberg, who has previously done work for Upright Citizens Brigade, The Colbert Report, and Hype Williams’ music video for Kanye’s West’s “All of the Lights.”

When BAM approached NeverOddorEven to make an animated trailer for BAMcinemaFest, I was beyond excited. I knew their reputation for showcasing great art, but I had no idea that they would allow me (much less encourage me!) to make something as fun/weird/edgy as I could possibly imagine. The short brief said, essentially: “Create an animation that encompasses the irreverent and creative spirit of BAM and Brooklyn and also informs the viewer of the festival and the date.” There were basically no other parameters!

These are a few of the initial boards that we presented to BAM, which
got everyone super excited and on the same page, right off the bat
(click on image for full-size version):

The video took two months to make. It was created entirely by two animators: me (Eve Weinberg, neveroddoreven.tv) and Erik Jensen (9north.com). And we could not have finished the piece without the amazing sound work from Mike Regan (mikeregannoise.com)!
The concept was to challenge the viewer's perception of reality, scale,
and space, while showcasing Brooklyn and the films in the festival. The
entire piece is a mixed-media extravaganza that combines stop motion,
miniatures, 2D animation, collage, 3D animation, and cel animation. The
camera move was inspired by footage I took while riding my bike to BAM
wearing a go-pro camera on my helmet. The people on the street are
fellow animators who work in Brooklyn; if you pause some of the frames
with the film reel, you can see that it's actually footage from the
films in the festival!

Here are some work-in-progress screenshots of what these things look like when they're half done:

And this is a picture of me and Erik high-fiving over Skype:

Thank you BAM for the AWESOME OPPORTUNITY!! I have to say that one of my favorite parts of this project was presenting the work-in-progress to the BAM team—seeing their faces light up and hearing their encouraging words to “keep going!”